by Sue MillerFour unforgettable characters beckon you into this spellbinding new novel from Sue Miller, the author of 2008’s heralded best seller The Senator’s Wife. First among them is Wilhelmina—Billy—Gertz, small as a child, fiercely independent, powerfully committed to her work as a playwright. The story itself centers on The Lake Shore Limited—a play Billy has written about an imagined terrorist bombing of that train as it pulls into Union Station in Chicago, and about a man waiting to hear the fate of his estranged wife, who is traveling on it. Billy had waited in just such a way on 9/11 to hear whether her lover, Gus, was on one of the planes used in the attack.
The novel moves from the snow-filled woods of Vermont to the rainy brick sidewalks of Boston as the lives of the other characters intersect and interweave with Billy’s: Leslie, Gus’s sister, still driven by grief years after her brother’s death; Rafe, the actor who rises to greatness in a performance inspired by a night of incandescent lovemaking; and Sam, a man irresistibly drawn to Billy after he sees the play that so clearly displays the terrible conflicts and ambivalence of her situation.
How Billy has come to create the play out of these emotions, how it is then created anew on the stage, how the performance itself touches and changes the other characters’ lives—these form the thread that binds them all together and drives the novel compulsively forward.
A powerful love story; a mesmerizing tale of entanglements, connections, and inconsolable losses; a marvelous reflection on the meaning of grace and the uses of sorrow, in life and in art: The Lake Shore Limited is Sue Miller at her dazzling best.
Good pick, I've read a couple of Sue Miller books (and liked them).
Me too on this one; I like Sue Miller.Here is my pick: http://bibliophilebythesea.blogspot.com/2010/03/waiting-on-wednesday_10.html
I love, love her and can't wait for this one, either!
This is the first time i've come across this one…but looks interesting I think i will join in…Going to post mine in a few….Happy blogging and love your blog by the way!!
Cool pick
Cool pick
Sound like this is an emotional one. I think I would really enjoy reading this.
This one looks very powerful. Great pick. Mine is at The Crowded Leaf.
Interesting pick! I have never read anything by Sue Miller but this one sounds very good.My Waiting on Wednesday (or Want to Read Wednesday) post is here.
I have never heard of this book. I hope that you enjoy your book when you get it. Here's Mine.
Great pick! I hadn't heard of this one before.
Great pick! I hadn't heard of this one before.
Really like your blog and I've given you an award over on my blog:http://readingschtuff.blogspot.com/2010/03/prolific-blogger-award.html